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Paper Format

You can get templates for the SIGCHI Paper format here. Please use the SIGCHI Papers Template and not the Extended Abstracts template.

1. Study Project:

For projects that are studies, take a look at this paper. Note the structure, style, and use of raw data (quotes) to illustrate the findings. The methodology of the study is also well documented. For the results, each section heading is one of the main themes that we found when doing our coding.

If you did a study for your project, your final paper should include the following sections (and your presentation should similarly mirror them):

Introduction: (~1 page in length)

Summarize the research space that you are looking at and illustrate why it is important. Describe the goal of the work. You can and should take the introduction from your Literature Review paper and rework it for this paper.

Related Work: (~1 page in length)

Describe the related work in the area of your project. You need to include at least 8 papers as references but should strongly consider including more.

Method: (~1 page in length)

Describe the method you used as part of your project. Include: descriptions of participants, study stages and method details, sample questions, and analysis method.

Results: (~3-5 pages in length)

Document the results of your project. Detail your main findings.

Discussion: (~1 page in length)

Discuss your work. Include between a half-page and one page of thoughts about your work now that it is complete. Answer the question: "so what?" Now that your work is done, what does it mean? Why is it important? What is still left to be done? Discuss how your work generalizes to other demographics, settings, or design areas.

Conclusion: (~1/4 page in length)

Summarize your project and your overall findings.

Reference List: (~1/2 - 1 page in length)

Include a list of the papers you read for your related work. These should be cited in the document according to their number in the list. The list should be organized alphabetically by the last name of the first author on each paper. The format of the references should follow the samples in the ACM CHI Conference format document.

2. Design Project:

For projects that are systems, take a look at these short papers (that were submitted along with videos to a conference): LINC Video, LINC Demo, Peek-A-Boo Video. Notice how the systems are described using images, usage scenarios, etc and how the rationale is shown for the design. This is what I'd expect to see for your papers, but only in a longer format with even more detail. Note that these papers also don't really have a related work section, but yours should.

If you did a design for your project (e.g., you built a system), your final paper should include the following sections (and your presentation should similarly mirror them). If you want, you can optionally write a 5 page paper and make a video that demonstrates your system (less than 5 minutes).

Introduction: (~1 page in length)

Summarize the research space that you are looking at and illustrate why it is important. Describe the goal of the work. You can and should take the introduction from your Literature Review paper and rework it for this paper.

Related Work: (~1 page in length)

Describe the related work in the area of your project. You need to include at least 8 papers as references but should strongly consider including more.

Design Principles: (~1/2 to 1 page in length)

Describe what principles your design is based on. What did you know you needed to include and why? (e.g., it needed to be flexible to use, it needed to support feature X). Use related literature to back up your principles as needed.

Design Evolution: (~3-5 pages in length)

Document the design and its evolution. Use text and visuals. Explain why you designed it as you did (e.g., motivation, rationale). Show how the design started, what stages it evolved through, and what the final design looks like. Also describe how the design would be used by someone (e.g., provide a usage scenario: Sally walks up and touches the tablet to begin the application. She selects...)

Discussion: (~1 page in length)

Discuss your work. Include between a half-page and one page of thoughts about your work now that it is complete. Critique the design: do you think it is good/bad? Does it match your original design principles? Answer the question: "so what?" Now that your work is done, what does it mean? Why is it important? What is still left to be done?

Conclusion: (~1/4 page in length)

Summarize your project and your overall findings.

Reference List: (~1/2 - 1 page in length)

Include a list of the papers you read for your related work. These should be cited in the document according to their number in the list. The list should be organized alphabetically by the last name of the first author on each paper. The format of the references should follow the samples in the ACM CHI Conference format document.